Ruben Östlund, Philippe Bober, Karim Aïnouz Attend German Event

Swedish director Ruben Östlund, who won Cannes Film Festival‘s Palme d’Or for “The Square” and “Triangle of Sadness,” was among the guests at the German Films and Medienboard Reception on May 18 in the garden of the Mondrian Hotel in Cannes.

Östlund, who is in the Riviera resort to promote his latest production, “The Entertainment System Is Down,” was accompanied by Philippe Bober of Coproduction Office, one of the film’s producers, and Erik Hemmendorf of Plattform Produktion, Östlund’s Swedish producer. (They are pictured above.)

German Films, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, was represented at the event by managing director Simone Baumann, and Medienboard, which is a film fund for the Berlin-Brandenburg region, was represented by its CEO Kirsten Niehuus. Variety was the media partner for the reception.

Among the other guests attending were Karim Aïnouz, director of “Motel Destino,” which plays in this year’s Competition section at Cannes. It is co-produced by Germany’s Match Factory Productions, who were represented at the event by Michael Weber and Viola Fügen.

Aïnouz’s project “Rosebushpruning,” also produced with Match Factory, has received €300,000 from Medienboard.

Fourteen German productions and co-productions have been selected in Cannes’ various sections. These include Miguel Gomes’ “Grand Tour,” which is also in the Competition section, and is another film that Match Factory has co-produced.

Another attendee was Jonathan Millet, director of “Ghost Trail,” which was the opening film in Cannes Critics’ Week this year. It received support from Medienboard.

Others attending included actor Matthias Schweighöfer, who was in “Oppenheimer,” and producers Janine Jackowski and Jonas Dornbach of Komplizen Film, whose slate includes Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie, which received funding from Medienboard.

Among the directors there were Katja von Garnier and Ilya Khrzhanovsky, the helmer of “Dau.”

Actors included Ruby O. Fee, Deleila Piasko, who is in German comedy drama “The Zweiflers,” named best series at Canneseries in April, Philipp Hochmair, Max Befort, Maximilian Mundt and Thomas Prenn, who is in “Grosse Freiheit.”

Also at the reception were actor Veronica Ferres, who is also a producer with Construction Filmproduction, Aylin Tezel, who is an actor and director, and Katja Eichinger, who is a writer and producer.